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Crime report: CDL schemes abound

The Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General recently announced court activity in three trucking-related crime investigations. Here’s a summary of what happened with each:

Louisiana CDL examiner charged for falsifying test results

Christopher Pender, a third-party commercial driver’s license tester, was charged April 4 for making and using a false writing and document by accepting cash payments from various CDL test applicants instead of giving the test.

In exchange for the payments, Pender provided the applicants with a Commercial Driver’s Skill Test Certificate, falsely certifying that the applicant had passed the test when he or she never took the test.

Beayaeh Kamara was sentenced April 13 to two years probation and 100 hours of community service for his role in a CDL test cheating scheme.

Kamara is the 11th and final person to be sentenced from the case that involved CDL test facilitators accepting between $1,800 and $2,500 in return for CDL exam answers and escort assistance through the DMV process.

The fraud schemes included the use of pencils with miniaturized test answers, the use of a Bluetooth headset as a communication device to relay test answers and the use of an external test-taker.

Vitiuk and Volodymyr Kurylo conspired to unlawfully produce identification documents including Pennsylvania commercial learner’s permits, CDLs, non-commercial learner’s permits and non-commercial driver’s licenses, according to the DOT. The two operated under the auspices of VN Trucking.

The DOT says the pair conspired to provide false residency documents to CDL students of VN Trucking who resided outside of Pennsylvania, allowing the students to obtain driver’s licenses – the precursor to obtaining a CLP and CDL.